Raising Your Own Evergreens—By John Dunbar 
Rochester, 
New York 
AN INTERESTING WINTER DIVERSION FOR THE AMATEUR WITH A SMALL GREENHOUSE—GROWING YEWS, CYPRESSES, 
AND ARBORVITAES FROM HARDWOOD CUTTINGS TAKEN FROM OCTOBER TO DECEMBER—A CURE FOR “‘DAMPING OFF’’ 
Te mere fact that you have raised your 
own plants from their earliest stages 
invests them with a very special interest in 
later years. Perhaps the propagation of the 
coniferous evergreens requires more care and 
constant watchfulness than any other branch 
of the work, and as a matter of dollars and 
cents plant propagation may not be worth 
while, asarule. Indeed, the average person 
can buy young plants from the nurserymen 
for less than it would cost him to raise them. 
But to the gardener there is a fascination in 
the mere work of propagating plants. Con- 
Rooted cuttings ten months old. Beginning at the 
right, trailing savin (Funiperus Sabina, var. procumbens), 
Tamarisk savin (Y, Sabina, var. tamariscifolia) and 
Canadian yew (Taxus Canadensis) 
stant vigilance is called for, to have good re- 
sults, which makes it all the more interesting. 
A knowledge of the proper method of in- 
creasing a stock of any plant is useful if by 
any ehance it is desired to multiply a rare 
plant, or one that has fond associations. A 
method that answers for handling most de- 
LL whee 
Removing the lower leaves from a cutting of the 
Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) before putting into the 
sand where it will ‘‘strike’’ or maKe roots 
ciduous trees was described in the September 
GARDEN MAGAZINE, pages 67 and 68. 
Evergreens are propagated by three 
methods: seeds, grafting, and cuttings. The 
raising of evergreens from seeds in the 
open air in this country is a difficult process, 
owing to our scorching summer sun, and 
the liability of prolonged drouths. The late 
Robert Douglas of Waukegan, Illinois, was 
the first nurseryman who succeeded in re- 
producing the natural conditions, and he 
raised seedling evergreens in large quantities. 
They can be raised without much difficulty 
in the more equable temperature of Britain, 
France and Holland, and millions of seed- 
lings are annually imported from these coun- 
tries by American nurserymen. Seedlings of 
choice evergreens are occasionally raised by 
American propagators in limited quantities 
in shaded coldframes, or in seed flats in a cool 
greenhouse where humidity and temperature 
can be controlled. 
Our showy varieties of garden evergreens 
such as the weeping, blue, silver and golden 
forms of spruces, firs, and pines, are usually 
perpetuated by veneer grafting, which is per- 
formed in the greenhouse in winter. Some 
of the large nursery firms in this country have 
given this up entirely of late because they 
find it much cheaper to import the young 
plants from Europe. 
Large numbers of evergreens are raised 
annually in this country from cuttings, and 
there is a considerable number of species 
and many varieties that can be raised profit- 
ably in this way. The Japanese retinis- 
poras, Nootka Sound cypress, most of the 
yews, arborvitees, and junipers, can be raised 
successfully from cuttings. 
GREEN AND HARDWOOD CUTTINGS 
Green cuttings of these, from three to six 
inches long, are sometimes taken in July, and 
struck in sand in a coldframe. ‘The better 
method is to take cuttings of the mature wood, 
anytime from the end of October to the end 
of December; and in most cases, the small 
lateral side shoots from four to seven inches © 
long, with a “heel” make cuttings that are 
almost sure to root. In some instances, 
though, the cutting with a heel may be too 
long to handle conveniently; in such cases 
cut close to a joint. The terminal shoot of 
a branch cannot have a heel so it must be cut 
toa joint. It will root, but not as easily as a 
side cutting with a heel. 
In preparing the cuttings for insertion in 
the cutting boxes, the lower leaves are re- 
moved from above the base of the cutting for 
two or three inches, the distance depending 
upon the size of the cutting. Usea knife with 
a sharp razor edge. All cuts must be clean 
and smooth; mutilation or bungling cannot 
be tolerated. 
The cuttings are placed in boxes or “‘flats”’ 
16 x 20 inches and 4 inches deep, with $-inch 
holes in the bottom to permit perfect drain- 
130 
age. Such a box will hold from 180 to 270 
cuttings, according to their size. The boxes 
may be modified to any size, but we have 
this size because they fit the benches with- 
out waste space. Broken potsherds are 
placed over the holes, which are again 
covered with a sprinkling of moss, and the 
box filled to within one-quarter of an inch 
of the top with sharp, clean, gritty sand 
which has been selected with great care. 
The cuttings are firmly dibbled in rows 
across the box, just touching each other, 
and the entire portion that has been cleared 
Cuttings as they are taken from the plant. Read- 
ing from left to right: Nootka cypress (Chamaecyparis 
Nutkaensis); Sawara cypress (C, visifera); Savin (Funi- 
verus Sabina); Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) 
The cuttings shown above, after the lower limbs and 
branches have been removed 
Taking off a side shoot of the Japanese yew, making 
a cutting with a “heel” 
